Chicken Salad With Walnuts and Grapes

By Jill Santopietro

Chicken Salad With Walnuts and Grapes
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
15 minutes
Rating
4(688)
Notes
Read community notes

A pile of this chicken salad plopped on top of a bed of greens or tucked between two slices of good bread would make a most excellent lunch or light supper. It starts with a quick dressing made of mayonnaise, chopped chives, parsley and tarragon and the juice and zest of a lemon. Combine the dressing with chopped, cooked chicken (for ease, use supermarket rotisserie chicken or Thanksgiving turkey leftovers), red grapes, red onion, celery and walnuts. It's a delightful and deeply satisfying combination of flavors (sweet, salty, tangy) and textures (cold, crunchy, juicy) that's almost impossible to stop eating.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings
  • ⅓cup plus 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
  • Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • ¼teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • ⅛teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
  • 1½teaspoons finely chopped chives
  • 1½teaspoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 1tablespoon finely chopped tarragon
  • 13-pound roasted chicken, skin removed, meat roughly chopped
  • ⅓cup finely chopped red onion
  • ½cup finely chopped celery
  • 1cup halved red seedless grapes
  • ¾cup roughly chopped walnuts, lightly toasted
  • Mesclun, optional
  • Crusty bread, optional
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

559 calories; 45 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 14 grams monounsaturated fat; 19 grams polyunsaturated fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 31 grams protein; 301 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper. Add the chives, parsley and tarragon and mix gently.

  2. Step 2

    In a large bowl, combine the chicken, onion, celery, grapes and walnuts. Add the mayonnaise mixture and fold together to combine. Season to taste. If desired, serve over mesclun or with bread.

Ratings

4 out of 5
688 user ratings
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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Peggy

Anyone know how much chicken breast meat to use to substitute for the meat from a three pound supermarket chicken?

Karen Strickholm

I have made almost exactly this recipe for years, subbing green grapes for red, and sliced (not slivered) almonds for the walnuts. Omit tarragon OR I put in mutiple herbs. Delicious and the sliced almonds are very satisfyingly crunchy in the salad. Yum!

Janet

This is so yummy. Great to make in the fall with fresh herbs from our garden. Excellent with leftover turkey.

Jennifer Lindsey

This is a nice, piquant variation on chicken salad. The red onion is a great addition and I suspect any herbs could be substituted although the chives worked well. I substituted pistachios for the walnuts and that worked great. I'll be making it this way again!

Chappell Stewart

I substituted the mayo with plain, low-fat greek yogurt and it was just as yummy!

Audrey

Lovely and refreshing on a hot day. When I tasted the dressing, I was worried that the lemon would be overpowering, but once the other 'sweet' flavors were added the balance was perfect. Still, I only added half of my lemon's juice, which I think I'd do again, or at least start with half and maybe add more. I've made other versions of chicken salad with grapes, and this will be nice addition to my collection.

Beej

I'd estimate, easily 4 to 6 cups of chicken from a roasted 3 pound chicken, depending on how roasty it was. When adding chicken to the dressing, do it gradually so you can judge if the moistness is how you like it.

Mlsjazz

Good variations to try: lime zest/juice in place of lemon. Toasted slivered almonds in place of walnuts. Add dash or two of Worcestershire sauce. Add diced chopped apple.

rah

If you happen to be allergic to walnuts, smoked almonds make a good substitute for a salty crunch.

Laura

Good. A little bland--could use more seasoning in the mayo mix. Added dried cranberries and used pecans instead of walnuts.

Charles Michener

Use a sharp serrated knife for those grapes.

Ridley

good not great

Paul

Made it pretty much like the recipe, changing tarragon leaves to a herb mixture from our herb garden and really enjoyed it. We go to Costco once a month, get the chicken of course, and make this yummy salad usually for our third meal from the bird.

res

Needs more mayonnaise or add som sour cream.

Nancy

Way too much lemon. I'll use half next time.

Elizabeth

Used blueberries in place of grapes, miracle whip for mayo and forgot the nuts. It was yummy!

Lynne

My version of this is to add grated fresh ginger to the mayo dressing. Taste as you go and add as much as you need. It’s more than you think, but adds just the right amount of je-ne-sais-quoi to make this truly outstanding.

Rose

I’m surprised there are no notes for this recipe, I love hearing what others thought and what they did differently. As for me, looking for something for lunch last minute on this first truly hot day of summer, I didn’t have grapes so I used dried cranberries and used canned chicken. Otherwise with the fresh herbs in my garden I was able to make it true to the recipe. It was very good!

Rose

Addendum: and just like that the 72 notes popped up. I’ll be reading all of them now!

ellen

This is a great recipe. Fo us, approx. 1 lb of boneless cooked chicken breast is adequate for this amount of dressing. I use about 2 Tbsp of lemon juice and decrease the tarragon to 1 tsp.

dina

~1/3 cup full fat greek yog, tbsp or so of mayo. no herbs but added penzey's fox point spice. no red onion. a little radicchio. delicious.

joel

Scrumptious! Half a lemon and half sour cream half mayo. Pecans! Divine

Lisa

I've made chicken salad since I was a kid, but never with a recipe. Who really needs a recipe for chicken salad, I thought. But I came across this when looking for something else so decided to try it. Well. I'm a convert. This was really delicious! I had all the ingredients on hand except fresh tarragon, so I used dried. Still really, really good. Also, adding the lemon juice allows for more dressing (moisture) without the need for quite as much mayo.

Maureen

I omitted the lemon and grapes. Used sweet white onion instead of red. Doubled the fresh tarragon and chives. Delicious!

LMB

Do you use the dark meat or just the white meat?

Karen

For a quick lunch, I substitute tuna for chicken. I leave out the chives. It's a family favorite.

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